Every and now then you just have to go and see a ridiculous movie.

I Am Number Four (from which no doubt there will be a number of sequels) tells the story of teenager John Smith (played by English actor Alex Pettyfer) who starts the movie on the run from big scary people who are trying to kill him. His guardian is the enigmatic Timothy Olyphant. Theirs is a story of constant changing of identity and moving towns until it is all brought to a head when the bad guys finally catch up to them. Along the way John Smith falls in love with Glee’s Dianna Agron, I mean, who wouldn’t I guess, and suffers through the usual teenage angst. Oh – John also picks up a lovely little beagle sidekick along the way (who turns out to be his monster bodyguard – still kind of cute in its own fugly way.)

The bad guys are seriously over-the-top and channeling some Romper Stomper skin head energy. Honestly – I think the bad guys would have been more menacing had they not been so over-the-top. (Cheese anyone)

Suspending any sort of logic or belief this movie is fairly enjoyable for its attractive leads (let’s not forget the kick-ass Aussie Teresa Palmer who comes zooming in on her motorbike all kitted out in her sexy PVC bad guy fighting outfit) and epic battles. Not entirely sure the romance was a necessary addition to the story – but I guess it gave our hero heart and filled in some time …

Black Swan is one of the most disturbing movies I have ever seen. This certainly has come from a very dark part of someone’s mind.

Natalie Portman plays a ballerina in a top ballet company whose entire life is consumed by ballet, and it turns out that her mother’s life is entirely consumed by her. A vacancy opens up for the prima ballerina position in Swan Lake and Portman is in the running. Swan Lake requires both a light and dark persona and whilst Portman’s character personifies the light, she embarks on some pretty crazy sh!t to reach her dark to overcome her closest rival.

This is one of the most well-acted movies I’ve seen in a while and as a thriller is spine-chilling. I can’t even begin to describe just how dark and depressed I feel right now having seen the movie. It certainly paints ballet in a whole new light.

Between eating today we made time to check out Tron, a reboot of a cult classic1980s movie which was one of the earliest to take video games to the big screen, and possibly the first to feature CGI technology – it was going to be interesting to see how advances in CGI since that time could bring something different to the big screen.

Sam (Garrett Hedlund) loses his father (Jeff Bridges) at an early age – no one knows where he went or what happened to him but it was surely something connected to the ENCOM Corporation whom his father was involved in. Sam has been looking for his father ever since and when he is lead at last to an old arcade parlour and what seems to be an old computer of his father’s he is zapped into The Grid, a computer world developed by his father and where people seemingly live, fight and play. Sam seeks a way to bring his father back into the real world. Of course there is a hot gal, Oliva Wilde, there to also help him 😉

The story is much more complicated than that with evil henchmens, backstabbing etc. but the whole point of the movie is the visual effects – which were simply stunning. The most exciting part of the movie is that it is unlike anything that we’ve seen on the big screen today – and watching it gives that feel of nostalgia which takes you back to your childhood and those fun involved old school games. Some awesome costumes in the movie as well and great soundtrack.

Michael Cera and comic-book-video-game-esque story-line – how could the combination really go wrong. It didn’t take much convincing for me to go check this movie out that’s for sure! The movie is vastly entertaining on so many levels though I’m not sure to the non-gaming or non-geeky public how much they would “get it”.

Michael Cera is a young musician who falls for this amazon delivery girl, Ramona Flowers. To win her he must first beat her seven evil exes (one who interestingly turns out to be a girl!) who are coming to kill him in a street-fighter /mortal kombat type reference. Kieran Culkin makes an interesting and actually engaging appearance as his gay roommate.

The visuals are simply stunning and inventive (its not like many movies you’ll have seen) but what really entertained me was the quick-witted, punny and even sometimes plain silly, but appealing, dialogue. It had me wetting my pants with laughter. Additionally, I love the fact that the movie had a lot of pop culture references.

No doubt about it this is a movie for geeks – but one that deserves to be watched again and again and again.

Step Up 3D is not going to win any critical awards, for either the story-line or the acting, but it certainly was an entertaining movie and will have its fans amongst those of us who love dance and good music. The fantastic thing about these new breed of musical is that like the other movies in the franchise, Step Up and Step Up 2: The Streets, it opens up opportunities for the kids in dance and for choreographers to really show their stuff.

In Step Up 3D we are brought to New York. This alone would have probably had me walking in the door. I love New York and I love nothing better than going into a movie and recognising where aspects of the movie were shot. It’s the underground street dance scene and, staying true to the formula, there are dance battles, showdowns and romance. The good guys of course end up on top. My favourite character had to have been Moose, as played by Adam Sevani, as a totally adorable hip nerd!

Just like the other dance movie I saw just a couple of months ago (Streetdance 3D) visually the movie is a feast to the eyes and accompanied by bangin’ soundtrack I could watch this movie over and over again without getting bored. As an aside the 3D aspect of the movie wasn’t totally necessary though it did add that bit of flair or spark for the huge dance mashes.

Bring on Step Up 4Ever!!

The thing with movies like Inception is that it potentially gives bad people good ideas – I mean really, the power to get into people’s heads … almost as scary as robots who are starting to look so human that you can’t tell one from the other. I was just reading a story where the robots take over the world and whilst its only fiction for the moment you can’t help but imagine its not something that is to far from our futures – frightening!

Leo is a mind-thief basically going into people’s dreams to steal their secrets. The back-story is that he is a fugitive in his own reality back in the States where he has been charged with the murder of his wife. A business man proposes to solve his problems for him if Leo can do the reverse of what he normally does – rather than stealing a thought, placing a thought into someone’s head. What follows is some crazy stuff but its so interesting and not so unrealistic that you really get invested as a viewer.

Interestingly Inception is a good combination of stunning visuals and imaginative story-line without allowing the visuals to take over the whole movie. The story-line is original and mind-boggling – you’ll want to make sure that you don’t fall asleep, for more reasons than one, during any of the movie.

The acting is excellent in this movie … as depressing and heart-wrenching as some of the story-line is.

Oh, just note that however frustrating the ending of the movie might have been it really seemed like the best ending you could have had.

Go see Inception for something thought-provoking,

Predictability and un-originality of the story aside (let’s face it how a dance movie is ever going to have an original story I don’t know) StreetDance3D brings a new element to the dance genre movie – 3D. Its only a few of months ahead of the mega franchise Step Up which will be releasing its own 3D movie shortly but in my view in this genre of movie – the more the merrier! As long as its got kickin’ dance movies and a pumping soundtrack its got my tick of approval irrespective.

In StreetDance 3D a streetdance crew training for the national championships are left leaderless, venueless and spiritless when their “leader” deserts them (cue predictable twist in the movie from this aspect.) His girlfriend is the natural successor but at first she struggles to keep the crew together and motivated. Eventually she hooks them up with a ballet school and the ballerinas (cue teacher who will think outside of the box to support this motley crew) leading to melding of classical and street styles for the national championships.

There were four things I loved about this movie:
1. Being set in London. It was fantastic that I knew every single spot the movie was shot in from spots by the Thames, to spots in the streets of London, to rooftop venue.
2. Actually knowing some of the performers who were starring in the film and having seen them live!
3. The choreography was AMAZING. I don’t know dance but it was tremendously creative and innovative. Great skills by the dancers to pull it off.
4. Music – it certainly had Laney and nearly up and dancing!

I’d watch this movie time and time again there’s no doubt. Oh and it doesn’t help that the dancers were all quite attractive too! Heh heh!

I went to see Sex and the City: 2 with Su Yin and Kelly tonight and I must say that despite the really poor dialogue and cheesiness of the script at times I really quite enjoyed it. Whether it was because I was enjoying the outrageous and weird fashion the girls were sporting, or reminiscing about the cities that the film was shot in, or just sitting back and enjoying the visual aspect of the movie who knows but it just worked for me.

Now don’t get me wrong this is certainly not going to win the critics over (and they are just going to absolutely massacre Sarah Jessica-Parker’s character) and it was probably funny to me for all the wrong reasons so don’t think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. For some light-hearted entertainment it did the trick (though I must admit I did cry when there was a particularly strong scene between Miranda and Charlotte.)

I loved Iron Man 2! I had just watched the first Iron Man the day before so that was fresh in my mind. In my humble opinion this is one of those rare occasions that the sequel was better than the first (though I think people have a different opinion).

The first one was all about the Man and there was quite a back story to it before I thought it really got moving. In Iron Man 2 we of course know all about him and though Iron Man gets a little bit indulgent and dare I saw a little annoying as a character the movie itself was still rather amusing. Perhaps it was the addition of the extremely hot Scarlett Johansson, as the Black Widow, (even if she kind of played a fairly 2-D character) but I just felt there was more going on in this one. Robert Downey Jr (damn that man is some kind of sexy) delivered in his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark and I liked the contributions, though small, of Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury. If there was any failing there was almost too much going on with loads of threads going this way and that. Visually it was a feast for the eyes without going over the top on the CGI.

Thumbs up for this second coming.